The present invention relates to a prior invention, U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,484. This invention dispenses the liquid used for communion into the empty cups that are assembled by hand into the communion trays. This method is very slow and unsanitary as fingers and thumbs touch areas of all communion cups. The invention covered by the above patent number is super fast in filling the cups after the cups are assembled into the trays. The assembly of the cups into the trays being much slower than the patented liquid dispenser causes a bottleneck during the communion preparation time. The above problems will be eliminated with the cup dispenser covered by this application. The cycle times of both dispensers are similar taking only seconds of time for each dispenser to perform its function.
Communion is a commonly practiced ritual of Christian churches. During the communion time at some church services, church members are given a small drink of juice or wine in commemoration of the last supper of Jesus Christ. In distributing the juice or wine, many churches use communion trays that have an insert holding a plurality of small drinking cups. These trays speed and facilitate distribution of the juice or wine. The time required preparing communion, inserting cups into the trays and filling them with juice or wine is very time consuming and labor intensive. This problem is especially severe in churches with large congregations. For example, Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky. has a present membership of approximately 22,000 members. Without the cup and juice dispensers filling the cups with juice for a weekend service would require approximately 46 hours of labor. By using both the juice and cup dispensers the time is reduced to less than two hours. Communion is served in every weekly service, four services per week. It is therefore a primary object of the present cup dispenser invention to provide a fast, easy and sanitary way to simultaneously fill a plurality of drinking cups into the trays. A typical tray holds up to forty drinking cups.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a dispenser that assures that every cup will dispense into the tray.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a dispenser that requires little maintenance or cleaning.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a dispenser that greatly enhances sanitation. Using the present method of inserting the cups into the trays by hand, fingers and thumbs touch every cup during the process. With the cup and juice dispensers communion can be prepared without touching the cups. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading of the following invention.
The dispenser of the present invention includes an assembly of tubes, a cup dispensing mechanism and other plates that guide the cups as they fall to the tray. All the above are mounted to a frame. This frame also supports a lower plate that not only has a plurality of holes for cups to exit but also has three stops attached that centralize the tray with the system and in a registry with the exit holes. The cups exit freely under the force of gravity through the exit holes in a series of plates and out the exit holes in the lower plate to the holes in a cup prelocator and into the tray.